Attributes are properties that capture information about an asset. You can modify or delete the predefined attributes of an asset. You can also create new attributes to capture additional information about an asset.
Predefined attributes and the attributes that you create are displayed in Data Governance and Catalog when a user creates an asset. For example, in Metadata Command Center, you can create a new attribute called Department with the allowed values of HR, Finance, Sales, or Marketing. Based on the selected asset type, the Department field appears while creating a new asset in Data Governance and Catalog, where you can enter or select any one of the allowed values. You can then use this attribute to filter your search for employees only in the HR department.
You can create custom attributes for predefined catalog sources. You can create, modify, or delete attributes. The Asset Customization tab on the Customize page in Metadata Command Center helps you manage custom attributes for all asset types.
To have permissions to create, modify, or delete attributes, define appropriate roles and select the Manage Custom Attributes feature for that role when you configure privileges for Metadata Command Center in Informatica Intelligent Cloud ServicesAdministrator. For more information about feature privileges that the organization administrator can configure for user roles, see the Introduction and Getting Started help.
Creating attributes
To create a new custom attribute, specify a name and data type, and select the asset type for which you want to create the attribute. You can also specify if you want to make the new attribute mandatory and searchable for a particular asset type.
Define appropriate roles and select the Manage Custom Attributes feature for that role when you configure privileges for Metadata Command Center in Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services Administrator. For more information about feature privileges that the organization administrator can configure for user roles, see the Introduction and Getting Started help.
1On the Customize page, go to the Asset Customization tab, select an asset type, and go to the Attributes tab.
2Click the Add icon.
Alternatively, you can use the Create button to add a new attribute.
3Configure the following properties of the new attribute:
Property
Description
Name
Unique name for the attribute that will be displayed in Data Governance and Catalog.
Ensure that the attribute name doesn't match a name that already exists.
Data Type
The type of value that users can enter in the attribute. You can choose one of the following data types:
- Text Field. Allows string values.
- Numeric Value. Allows an integer or a decimal value.
- Dropdown List. Allows to select values from the list of values.
- Boolean/Check Box. Allows to select one of two mutually exclusive options.
- Date Field. Allows to select a date.
Default value is Text Field.
Subtype
Select a subtype based on the data type that you selected.
Default Value
The value that should appear in the field by default.
Consider using a maximum of 15 characters when specifying the default value.
Placeholder Text
A description that informs the user about the purpose of the attribute.
Mandatory
Determines whether the field is mandatory or optional. Click Mandatory to create a mandatory field.
Search and Filter
Determines whether you can use the attribute as search and filter criteria in Data Governance and Catalog. Additionally, this field also allows you to view the assets that will be impacted when you try to delete an attribute.
This field is enabled by default.
Note: If you disable this field, you can't delete the attribute until you enable it again.
For more information about how a user can search for assets, see the Working With Assets help in Data Governance and Catalog.
Asset Type
The asset type in Data Governance and Catalog for which you want to create this attribute. You can select asset types in the following categories:
- Business asset.
- Data Marketplace asset.
- Technical asset. You choose technical asset types for each catalog source.
Note: Asset type hierarchy is a class inheritance hierarchy. If you select a superclass asset type, the subclass asset types also get selected.
This creates a draft version of the new attribute that you can view in the attributes list on the Attributes tab.
5Click the name of the attribute that you saved to view and verify the details of the attribute. To modify the properties of the attribute, edit the values and click Save.
Note: If you do not want to proceed with your changes, use the Discard icon to discard the draft version of the attribute. You can also perform this action from the Action menu on the Asset Customization > Attributes tab of the Customize page. On the Asset Customization > Attributes tab, you can also discard the draft version of multiple attributes. To do this, select the attributes for which you want to discard the draft state and click Discard button from the Action menu.
6Click Publish to publish the attribute in Data Governance and Catalog.
The system initiates the Attributes Publish job to publish your changes. If another job to create, modify or delete an attribute or relationship is active, the system displays an error. To publish the attribute, you must wait for the active job to be completed. You can click View Status to monitor the status of the job on the Job Monitoring Overview page.
Note: The system displays an error even if the previous job had failed. At this stage, you must resolve the errors and reinitiate the previous job and await its completion before you can start your own job.
After the publishing is successful, the lifecycle state of the attribute changes from Draft to Published.
The new attribute appears when a user creates an object for the selected asset type in Data Governance and Catalog. Based on the data type that you selected, the user can enter an appropriate value for the custom attribute.
Modifying attributes
You can modify a predefined attribute or a custom attribute that you created.
1On the Customize page, go to the Asset Customization tab, select the asset type whose attributes you want to modify, and go to the Attributes tab.
2On the Attributes tab, select the attribute that you want to modify.
You can use filters to assist you in your search for attributes. You can also use filters to view only the predefined attributes for an asset type, or to view only the custom attributes for an asset type.
3Depending on the lifecycle state of the attribute, choose one of the following options:
- If the attribute is in the Draft state, you can modify any property of the attribute.
- If the attribute is in the Published state, open the attribute and click Create a draft. You can modify only some of its properties.
When you modify an attribute, you can modify its associated asset types and also configure its acceptable values. For more information about how you can modify the asset type associated with an attribute, see Configuring asset types for attributes. For more information about how you can configure the acceptable values for an attribute, see Configuring dropdown values.
Note: You can configure a non-searchable attribute to be searchable. However, you can't configure a searchable attribute to be non-searchable.
4Click Save.
Depending on the lifecycle state, one of the following changes appears:
- For attributes in the Draft state, the Publish option activates.
- For published attributes that you created a draft of, the draft version appears in the Published with draft available state.
Note: If you do not want to proceed with your changes, you can use the Discard icon to discard the draft version of the attribute. You can also perform this action from the Action menu on the Asset Customization > Attributes tab of the Customize page. On the Asset Customization > Attributes tab, you can also discard the draft version of multiple attributes. To do this, select the attributes for which you want to discard the draft state and click Discard button from the Action menu.
5Click Publish to publish your changes.
You can also perform this action from the Action menu on the Asset Customization > Attributes tab of the Customize page. On the Asset Customization > Attributes tab, you can also publish multiple attributes. To do this, select the attributes that you want to publish and click Publish button from the Action menu.
The system initiates the Attributes Publish job to publish your changes. If another job to create, modify or delete an attribute or relationship is active, the system displays an error. To publish your changes, you must wait for the active job to be completed. You can click View Status to monitor the status of the job on the Job Monitoring Overview page.
Note: The system displays an error even if the previous job had failed. At this stage, you must resolve the errors and reinitiate the previous job and await its completion before you can start your own job.
The status of the attribute changes to Published and the modified attribute appears in Data Governance and Catalog.
6After the publish job is completed, ensure that you refresh the web page on your browser to view your changes to the attribute.
Configuring dropdown values
For an attribute of the dropdown data type, you can create, modify or remove the acceptable dropdown values when the attribute is in a Draft state.
1On the Asset Customization > Attributes tab of the Customize page, click the Action menu next to an attribute and select Edit.
2To add a new value, click the Add icon in the Values field and enter the new value.
When you configure a new value, consider using a maximum 15 characters.
Note: If you are adding new sensitivity levels or dimensions, consider the following:
- For the Sensitivity Level attribute that is available for data element classifications, you can configure a maximum of 5 values in addition to the immutable value None. Furthermore, when you add new sensitivity levels, ensure that you enter the values from top to bottom in increasing order of sensitivity.
- For the Dimension attribute that is available for data quality rule template and data quality rule occurrence asset types, you can configure a maximum of 12 values.
3To modify an existing value, click the value that you want to modify in the Values field .
4To modify the position of a value, click the navigational arrows next to the value.
Note: For the Sensitivity Level attribute that is available for data element classifications, you can't modify the position of the sensitivity level value None.
5To remove an existing value, click the Delete icon next to the value that you want to remove from the Values field .
6Click Save and then click Publish to publish your changes.
The system initiates the Attributes Publish job to publish your changes. If another job to create, modify or delete an attribute or relationship is active, the system displays an error. To publish your changes, you must wait for the active job to be completed. You can click View Status to monitor the status of the job on the Job Monitoring Overview page.
Note: The system displays an error even if the previous job had failed. At this stage, you must resolve the errors and reinitiate the previous job and await its completion before you can start your own job.
After the publishing is successful, the lifecycle state of the attribute changes from Draft to Published.
View asset types for attributes
You can view all asset types assigned to an attribute. You can search for an asset type by name.
1On the Asset Customization > Attributes tab of the Customize page, click an attribute.
2If an attribute has more than one asset type, hover over the +<number of asset types> icon in the Asset Type column to view the assets types in a pop up.
3If an attribute has more than 20 asset types, click Show All to view all asset types.
The All Asset Types dialog box appears.
4Use the navigation and search options to find an asset type.
5Click Close to return to the Attributes tab.
Configuring asset types for attributes
You can add or remove the asset types for an attribute based on class inheritance rules when the attribute is in a Draft state.
1On the Asset Customization > Attributes tab of the Customize page, click the Action menu next to an attribute and select Edit.
2Click Select next to the Asset Type field.
3In the Select Asset Type dialog box, add or remove the asset types based on the rules of class inheritance.
If you select a superclass asset type, such as Data Structure, the subclass asset type File also gets selected.
Selected asset types appear in the right panel.
4Click Save.
Depending on the lifecycle state, one of the following changes appears:
- For attributes in the Draft state, the Publish option activates.
- For published attributes that you created a draft of, the draft version appears in the Published with draft available state.
5Click Publish to publish your changes.
The system initiates the Attributes Publish job to publish your changes. If another job to create, modify or delete an attribute or relationship is active, the system displays an error. To publish your changes, you must wait for the active job to be completed. You can click View Status to monitor the status of the job on the Job Monitoring Overview page.
Note: The system displays an error even if the previous job had failed. At this stage, you must resolve the errors and reinitiate the previous job and await its completion before you can start your own job.
After the publishing is successful, the lifecycle state of the attribute changes from Draft to Published.
If you added a predefined attribute to an asset type that isn't conventionally associated with the attribute, you must manually add the attribute to the custom layouts that you have created. For more information about custom layouts, see Custom layouts for asset views.
Deleting attributes
If an attribute is no longer relevant to the asset type or if you want to modify the properties of an attribute, you can delete the attribute and create a new attribute. Deleting a attribute removes the attribute in Data Governance and Catalog along with all the values that are defined for this attribute for any asset.
To manage create, delete, or modify attributes, define appropriate roles and select the Manage Custom Attributes feature for that role when configuring privileges for the Metadata Command Center service in Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services Administrator. For more information about feature privileges that the organization administrator can configure for user roles, see the Introduction and Getting Started help.
1On the Customize page, go to the Asset Customization tab, select an asset type, and go to the Attributes tab.
You can use filters to assist you in your search for attributes. You can also use filters to view only the predefined attributes for an asset type, or to view only the custom attributes for an asset type.
2Select the check box for one or more attributes.
Note: You can delete only some of the predefined attributes available for an asset type. For example, you can't delete the Dimension attribute for data quality rule template and data quality rule occurrence asset types.
3Click the Action menu for any of the selected attributes and click Delete.
If you have selected more than one attribute to delete, then the Action menu for the selected group appears only if all the attributes in the group are in the Published or Published with draft available lifecycle states.
Note: If you haven't marked an attribute as searchable, then you can't delete the attribute until you enable the Search and Filter property for it.
4Click Delete to confirm.
The system initiates the Attributes Publish job to publish your changes. If another job to create, modify or delete an attribute or relationship is active, the system displays an error. To delete the attribute, you must wait for the active job to be completed. You can click View Status to monitor the status of the job on the Job Monitoring Overview page.
Note: The system displays an error even if the previous job had failed. At this stage, you must resolve the errors and reinitiate the previous job and await its completion before you can start your own job.
After the publishing is successful, the lifecycle state of the attribute changes from Draft to Published.
